Pak Mamat loves gardening. Every day he went to his farm to take care of his banana farm.
One day, a strong
wind blew a seed of unknown tree which fell on the ground somewhere in the
farm. Not long after that, the seed started to germinate and proudly introduced
itself as “Liyusina” tree.
Pak
Mamat received a call from his son, Hashim, who lived in town. Hashim’s
wife had safely delivered their first baby after two years of
marriage. Pak Mamat and his wife, Mak Dibah, excitedly rushed to the
town and
planned to spend a couple of months there.
During
his absence, Liyusina began to dominate Pak Mamat's banana farm.
Liyusina is a fast growing tree and produces hundreds of seeds. The
seeds then could germinate and grow as fast
as their parents. The banana were threatened by Liyusina’s existence,
and soon the banana farm was totally converted to a Liyusina farm.
As Pak Mamat came back from the town, he was shocked to see
what had happened to his banana farm. With his full strength, he cut the Liyusina trees
one by one. Besides, he also collected the seeds
and destroyed them.
However, Liyusina was such a resilient invasive tree. New shoots
were sprouted out around the stump in no time after the trees were cut. Even girdling the trunk could not kill
Liyusina. The situation became even worst during the rainy seasons because more young shoots and
seedlings were sprouting in the farm.
After thinking hard, Pak Mamat got a brilliant idea.This
time, he drilled a small hole in the trunk and injected a herbicide.
It was said that the herbicide was very effective to kill the plant cell
although it might take some time.
Gradually after that, the Liyusina leaves started to wither and turned black.The
leaves fell and the Liyusina trees appeared weak and dying. Pak Mamat was relieved
with the progress. The banana were happy and of course Pak Mamat was the
happiest man in the world.
In
the following month, Pak Mamat harvested a lot of banana from his farm.
As a way of grateful to the blessing, Pak Mamat shared some of the
fruit with his fellow villagers.
